On Monday, the Minnesota Wild relieved head coach Dean Evason and assistant coach Bob Woods of their duties, introducing John Hynes as the team's new head coach.

Evason took over as bench boss in February of 2020, guiding the club to an impressive 147-77-27 record since then. Despite his overall success, he ends up being the scapegoat for an ongoing losing streak that extended to seven games on Sunday, plummeting the team to 30th in league standings. Despite Minnesota's recent fall, they're still within reach of the playoffs thanks to a weak Western Conference. I guess that's why General Manager Bill Guerin felt compelled to make this move right now, while the team has lots of runway to get back into postseason conversation. Minnesota's schedule over the next few weeks features many games against teams they'll be battling for a playoff spot, including St. Louis, Calgary, Seattle, Nashville and Edmonton.

As I write this, the Wild have a bottom-10 offense, scoring just 2.95 goals per game. Their defense is second worst in the league right now, conceding 3.95 goals per game. Those offensive struggles are reinforced by advanced stats as the team ranks near the bottom of the league in expected goals at 5v5. However, advanced stats suggest their defense has been solid, with 2.37 expected goals against per 60 minutes, good enough for ninth in the league (via NaturalStatTrick). If the team has been playing well defensively, why have they conceded so many goals? Abysmal goaltending. Through 11 appearances, Filip Gustavsson sports a 3.94 GAA and an .881 save percentage. Similarly, Marc-Andre Fleury holds a 3.46 GAA and .875 save percentage over nine contests. Both have conceded significantly more goals than expected given the quality of shots they've faced. Now, I thought Gustavsson had the talent to bounce back even before Evason's firing, but this move could provide a much-needed jolt, accelerating his return to top-form. Although Marc-Andre Fleury might also rebound, given his age and lacklustre numbers in recent years, I'm not as enthusiastic about his fantasy outlook.

It’s worth noting that Minnesota's penalty kill currently sits at the bottom of the league with an abysmal 67% success rate. They posted an 82% success rate with a similar group last year, so I have faith they'll figure things out soon. A stronger PK should help Gustavsson and Fleury post better numbers.

Shifting our attention to new coach John Hynes, who has previous NHL coaching experience, overseeing the Devils from 2015 to 2019, and the Predators from 2020 to 2023. In both cases, it seems his teams performed better defensively than they did offensively. What I found most interesting, though, is how he distributed ice time. During Hynes' tenure with the Devils, Taylor Hall led all forwards with 19:18 of ice time per game. While Hynes was head coach in Nashville, Mikael Granlund led forwards with an average time on ice of 19:33, while Matt Duchene sat second at 17:53. The point I'm trying to illustrate here is that Hynes may not lean on his top players the way Evason did. Kirill Kaprizov, who has been averaging 21:23 so far this season, could see slightly less ice time under Hynes than he did under Evason. That being said, it wouldn't be the end of the world if Kaprizov's ice time dropped by a minute or two. He scored at a 109-point pace in 21-22 while seeing 19 minutes of action per game.

Given Hynes' defensive focus, I wouldn't be surprised to see him lean on defensively responsible players like Joel Eriksson Ek and Frederick Gaudreau. Of course, Eriksson Ek was off to a career-best start under Evason this year, so I'm not sure if the Hynes hiring helps Ek's fantasy value, considering it was already so high. I'd also be concerned that a younger player like Marco Rossi, who has great offensive talent but is still developing his defensive game, may not get the same opportunity under Hynes that he was getting under Evason this year.

When a coach gets fired, we often see players perform better in the short term. With a new boss, players are encouraged to put their best foot forward in order to earn favourable deployment. Expect a similar situation here.

Players this might help:

Filip Gustavsson

Joel Eriksson Ek

Players this might hurt:

Kirill Kaprizov

Marco Rossi